I chose this particular lesson for two
reasons. First, when it comes to online activities and and
integrating technology into math I feel as though geometry does it
the best. Because geometry is such a visual topic finding different
programs to show triangle or circle constructions is very simple. But
also makes learning geometry fun and interesting which helps because
of how dry a subject geometry can be for many students. The second
reason is because I have personally done this project myself in class
so I had a firm grasp of how the lesson plan worked and what was
being asked of the students.
The biggest gap between the
goals for this project and the strategies is the fact that it doesn't
mention the introduction of theorems to help the students construct
the different triangles until the end of the lesson. When I did this
project I had a whole class period on how to use a compass and
straightedge to construct the different triangles where as these
students seem to have just been asked to attempt this without any
direction. To me this is an easy fix by including that kind of lesson
first or perhaps that is not an issue because this lesson is one of
many in a whole unit and the tools to find these different triangles
was already taught to the students.
The use of the Triangle Classification
online activity was not essential to achieving the curriculum goals.
The use of this program was more of an after thought used to
reenforce the topic and skills the students were practicing. If I
were teaching the lesson I would use Geometers Sketchpad to generate
the triangle constructions because it allows you to show more than
the program Illuminations offers.
